I would add that forced appreciation is appreciation too that is not dependent on market conditions ... and any sort of appreciation can be tapped at any time without selling via cash out refinance ... any market bubble pop tends to be temporary and a small blip in the longterm trend, unless you are not financially stable enough to hold through a downturn or think that prices would pop and never recover, in which case you probably shouldn't be owning in that market at all ... appreciation also shows up in ROI perhaps even as you define it and even without tapping equity as rents increase and if you calculate your "I" based on your total actual costs (based on your purchase price) and not current market value ... finally, I would say that I still care tremendously about long term appreciation and my resulting equity position, even if I don't plan to sell or cash out refinance, as it gives me a whole lot more exit strategies and options, which makes my investment less risky and more robust even if I don't choose to exercise these options ...

The money that it takes for paid lead services is much better spent building a robust referral network.

Everything else is much easier (and irrelevant without deal flow).Most serious part-time investors have plenty of capital, know how to buy right, and have management solutions....but we lack 100s of profitable opportunities flowing through the funnel (compared to those with active marketing and robust deal flow pipelines).